Mountain Meditation Gong In this meditation,
We're going to use the image of a mountain to help us find the sense of inner stillness.
A mountain is calm,
Grounded,
Resilient,
And it can help us discover a sense of composure amidst the sometimes stormy weather of the mind.
So let us use the mountain to help us embody these qualities now.
We begin by setting up a good posture,
Sitting with a sense of resolve,
Of willingness in this practice to meet whatever arises.
We can be seated for this practice,
Our shoulders loose,
A face free of expression,
And our eyes closed.
Just pulling up our head slightly and tucking in our chin a little,
Feeling the weight of our body.
Just drawing our attention into this feeling of being a body,
A body that is fully supported by the earth below.
And when we're settled,
We can bring to mind the image of a mountain.
What comes to mind with this word?
Picturing as vividly as we can,
A mountain in our mind's eye.
This might be one we've seen before,
Or completely imagined.
Or completely imagined.
Just drawing ourselves in to this image,
Seeing our mountain set against the sky.
Perhaps it has one peak,
Perhaps it has many.
Perhaps it has trees or snow.
Perhaps just bare rock against the sky.
Just seeing the full expanse of this mountain.
And what's the weather like here?
Does the sun rain down on the mountain?
Or snow or rain or hail?
Are there clouds in the sky?
Just conjuring up this image of the mountain,
Dominating the horizon.
Perhaps we see birds flying around the peak.
Eagles soaring.
Just get a sense of this object towering out from the earth,
Up into the sky.
Now we see if we can take ourselves into this mountain,
If we can become one with this mountain.
Can we feel ourselves as this mountain as we sit here?
Our head at its very top,
Looking down from the summit,
Feeling the rest of the mountain as our whole body.
Sinking down into the earth,
Feeling ourselves as this giant,
Stable presence on the earth.
This is a living,
Breathing mountain.
We feel the rhythm of the body as it sits here.
Alive,
Yet still and composed presence of this body.
Just coming home into that sense of being a body,
Sitting here,
Supported by the earth.
We might imagine the view from the top of this mountain.
As we look down,
Feel the body of the mountain below.
And we start to see the weather.
It's their sun,
It's their wind.
Do we hear birds?
Through all of this,
The mountain just sits.
And we,
As this mountain,
Also just sit through and witness the weather.
The mountain sits unaffected.
The world swirls around.
The mountain does not move.
The mountain doesn't react.
Just as we,
As we sit here with this sense of the body,
We can feel ourselves,
Supported,
At home in this body.
Without needing to react to what arises around.
Whatever sensations,
Thoughts,
Stories arise around our sense of being here as a body.
We just let them happen.
We don't mind that they are there.
The mountain just sits.
The mountain doesn't get drawn into the weather.
It doesn't complain about it.
It doesn't do anything.
And we too can just sit.
Experience the joy of just sitting,
Being willing to sit amidst the weather.
And we can feel the body as our still and serene base.
This is our ground.
Our place of stability.
Dropping the image of the mountain now,
We can just feel this body.
From this place,
This living breathing body,
We can be willing to experience the weather of our own mind.
Whatever mental images,
Conversations,
Memories,
We just sit and observe.
Allowing the weather to happen,
Yet recognising that the weather does not control us.
It does not determine what we do.
It's there.
It's happening.
It's not me.
What is it like not to have to worry about this?
Not to have to try to control the weather?
Not to have to control our minds?
Just to breathe,
Just to sit,
And recognise that we already possess an inner composure and peace.
We need not search for it.
We feel into it in the body,
The breathing body.
And as we come to the end of this practice,
We just drop all effort.
Drop all images,
All intentions.
Drop all effort to meditate.
Maybe just sit and watch the mind happening.
Sitting,
Doing nothing.
Not to have to worry about it.
Not to have to worry about it.
Not to have to worry about it.
Not to have to worry about it.
Not to have to worry about it.
And knowing that we can take whatever composure and stillness we have found here into the remainder of our day.
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